Single Mum'ing

Tim’s still in hospital, getting more tests done and trying to get his fever down. They may operate, or not, and he’s sick of being there. Fortunately he’s allowed to use his Blackberry and can take calls and emails (timothy.j.bull@uk.pwc.com), so he has a link to the outside world.I have been single mum’ing, going to the fabulous adventure playground near’ish to our house and reading half a novel while the kids are left to their own devices. Everyone’s happy. Yesterday we visited Battersea Park with a Children’s Zoo and another adventure playground. The playgrounds here are a bit different:

• Adventure playgrounds are staffed by volunteers, and you can leave your kids there for a small donation (I haven’t yet – the other kids are feral)
• Regular playgrounds have signs on the equipment stating how old the child should be. e.g. ‘Only for use by children under 5 yrs’ or ‘Equipment to be used for 8-11 year old children). It’s a shame because so often equipment can be used in imaginary games, or climbed on top of, etc and a whole bunch of kids miss out on using it.
• There are loads of benches in the younger kid’s areas, but no seats at all in the older kid sections. Literally a pain in the bum to sit on bitumen for 1.5 hours.

Being with the kids as a single Mum all day, every day for the past 5 days has been hard, but thankfully they’re at school all week which gives me break.Thanks for your messages of support…. they really help!